Wicked Charm
Budélle drifted around the snapping jaws of hellacious dragon heads, effortlessly curving her svelte form as she floated closer. The comfey had dressed the battlefield earlier and now reaped the benefits. Grassy Terrain magically furnished the patchy ground in a luxuriant carpet of blooming herbs, lending strong support to her Grass Knot and boosting her healing nature and favorite spell, Floral Healing.
She undulated between wicked fangs, lifting delicate blossoms away from the hyedragion's mindlessly lurching twin heads. She used Sweet Kiss on the larger dazed head to keep the brutal-pokémon confused. The monster thrashed away, almost clipping one of the flowers weaved into her vine-like body. She let herself be pushed away by the stirred air, and twirled upward in satisfaction.
The dark dragon knocked its heads together and bit at a visible wingtip, letting out a terrible, layered roar at the torment. The smaller black-furred heads shook themselves as if to clear the confusion and caught the tailend of the cry with raspy ones of their own. The noise attracted the crazed eyes of their keeper who viciously chomped each in quick succession. The fresh suffering caused another mind-numbing roar and it jumped into the sky.
The eyeless faces dangled limply, spouting blood from their shredded throats as forced air from six black wings batted them wildly. Too maimed and confused the dragon couldn't heed its trainer's commands and was engulfed in a soothing light, then encapsulated safely.
"Just like a man, you're all talk! I feel sorry for you girlfriend, clearly you're compensating-"
"Aurélie, keep your head in the game!" the Fairy Tale Girl's coworker warned from the sideline. The small audience guffawed and hooted with laughter, except the Battle Girl who glowered as she sunk a hand into her waist, fingers itching to cast her own pokéballs. The swarthy opponent chuckled as he retrieved the persim berry his dragon hadn't seen him throw. It was a drawback to using organic remedies, both pokémon and trainer had to do their part unlike with synthetic potions.
He quirked the corners of his lips in a tolerant smile for Budélle as she drifted down to him. The comfey's itty-bitty face was overjoyed, her dewdrop-eyes twinkled merrily into his dark ones. "Well done," he murmured and watched the tiny fairy swirl around his arm and up to his neck, like some type of flower-snake.
"Budélle, focus!" Aurélie coached. The fairy pokémon rose off the Dragon Tamer and spiraled through the air to curl around her neck in a happy hug. The comfey resembled a lei covered in blooms, otherwise she looked like a yo-yo.
"You got this Maël, don't get beat by a little girl!" one of the Dragon Tamers goaded. Aurélie immediately fell for it, tossing her golden head and angling her chin at the slick blond trainer.
"Who are you calling 'little girl?' Shut your mouth or I'll have my pokémon shut it for you!" The other Dragon Tamers sneered across the meadow as their coworker came up with a response. The Fairy Tale Girls glanced at each other hoping Aurélie won otherwise they'd never hear the end of it.
Finally Maël chose a pokéball, expanded it and released a flash of light. A tall green-scaled pokémon coalesced, sinking two clawed feet into the lush groundcover of Gassy Terrain. It locked reptilian eyes on Budélle and shifted into a predatory stance.
"Have a nice trip see you next fall!" Aurélie spoke in code, cueing for Grass Knot but the sceptile burst into action at her voice. It dash left, right and lunged into the air, spinning its large body nimbly, head over silvery tail to slammed the fey with Iron Tail for a one-hit-knock-out. Aurélie wordlessly recalled her fainted pokémon and cast out another with teeth bared.
The greenery of Grassy Terrain shriveled as the magic waned, in seconds leaves turned yellow and brown and disintegrated to soil. "Handle this lizard, Rory!" A petite figure struck a pose as the enveloping light faded. The roserade held one vivid bouquet over her head, the other out to the side. Without looking up she flicked the rosy bundle of flowers forward and sprayed Sleep Powder at the sceptile mid-attack.
Her trainer's shouted warning cut off as the reaching claws collapsed with the rest of the emerald reptile. Rory's dollop of white petals swirled with her flamboyant spin, her long cape flared out as it followed. She tipped her flower-filed hands and shook out burr-like pods. Seeds clung to the scaly sceptile and immediately started glowing with lifeforce.
The deep voices of Dragon Tamers groaned as she lightly danced around the sedated pokémon, ripping into its soft scales with thorny vines. Meanwhile Leech Seed continued sapping energy into her sprightly body.
Maël sighed, weighing the chesto berries in his hand, had his pokémon been holding one the pungent smell could have revived it. He'd already thrown two but the hard berries had bounced too far away to be effective. The roserade's scarlet eyes had slid, side-long to meet his as she jabbed sharp thorns into his pokémon as consequence.
The Dragon Tamer decided not to wait any longer, clutching the multi-hued amulet around his neck, he activated the sceptilite.
Brilliant energy surged from the large reptile, transforming its aerodynamic body for combat. The spines on its head elongated to form gutting-hooks, the machetes at its arms curved into reapers. Its tail stretched, filing each existing spike into glaive-points and sharpening at the end into a wicked harpoon.
Most notably from the front were the new spikes that protected its long neck and torso, and the neon-red markers that deepened around its eyes and swedged points, ringing the enormous mace-like tail in obvious warning of the higher-potency toxins it now possessed.
Rory admired the transformation on a cocked hip, her attractive scent deepened as her own toxic cocktail churned. Barbs quickly forced through the green stalks of her arms at the heightened threat. Worse than the intimidation factor was the opening of the mega sceptile's cold-blooded eyes.
It lunged at the grass pokémon and snagged her as she pranced backward, puncturing her tiny body with razor tipped claws. The roserade's Poison Point ability instantly pricked it, injecting fresh venom into its bloodstream and before the emerald dragon could hiss, Rory ignited the lethal doses in its system with Venoshock. She was rewarded with freedom as the towering pokémon spasmed to its knees, screeching from its open beak.
The roserade danced away dislodging Toxic Spikes and broadcasting Sleep Powder with every dainty step. Leech Seed continued drawing viridescent dewdrops through the air, restoring her energy and knitting the gaping piercings. She heard the mega sceptile building for an attack with Work Up and lifted her periwinkle bouquet without turning around.
The grass dragon writhed back to the ground as Venoshock once again plagued through its veins. Once she'd strutted far enough for comfort she whipped around so the glossy cape spun and made a show of lifting her flower-topped arms together.
"For the love-" Aurélie started exasperated, "today please!" One more Venoshock would win the battle.
"Catch!" Maël called as he tossed a bruised pecha berry. Rory watched closely and timed her next Venoshock to when the mega sceptile reached for the antidote, the muted rumble of the scaly pokémon made her titter. Maël seethed and reached for a pokéball to spare his pokémon the agony but the roserade's fiery irises caught the trainer's movement and directed another Venoshock to ensure a knockout.
Grumblings rose from the audience and even the Fairy Tale Girls winced, it was an unspoken custom to let a trainer forfeit in lieu of additional damage to a pokémon. A Dragon Tamer's cave-pokémon roared in outrage, the sound shuddered through the air, vibrating resting boulders and rattling ribcages.
The druddigon was quickly recalled before it could do more than snap its craggy beak. Delicate throat clearing broke the resulting silence and directed everyone's attention to Aurélie.
"Next?" the golden blonde prompted, struggling to hide her annoyance. No one had witness the reproachful exchange between her and Rory. The roserade now stood forcefully at ease, she'd argued rebelliously during their silent exchange but had been shut down with a sharp shake of her trainer's head. Too proud to openly pout, the nymph masked her emotions but the sulky cast to her eyes gave her away.
"What a witch," the smug Dragon Tamer from before commented, seemingly translating for his furious charizard. The torch at the dragonkin's tail blazed in temper, glazing its brassy scales with a coppery patina.
"Maybe it wasn't clear," Aurélie said scornfully, "if you ever disrespect my pokémon again I'll make you eligible to join our club." The angry undertone in her voice marred the intended hauteur.
"I said that to you!" The young man snarled, ready for another battle. The golden blonde shrugged bad temperedly, causing long ringlet curls to tumble off her shoulder and swing. The flashy movement attracted Rory's attention and Aurélie caught her gaze and gestured as if to say 'this is why.' The grass pokémon narrowed her lurid eyes but snapped to attention as Maël released the next opponent.
This new reptile was small-boned and slender, its shiny scales flashed every color of burnished gold as it hopped around trying to dislodge a Toxic Spike. Its short arms twitched in the air and clicked needle-sharp claws. The heliolisk managed to pull out the prick and venom with a surge of electricity.
It surveyed the field with brilliant blue irises and cracked its jaw open to hiss hotly. The black, fleshy membranes bunched around its neck sprung open to frame its reptilian head and attract sunlight.
"Party time!" Aurélie said, hinting Rory should 'dress' the field. The roserade forced a bored expression but twirled in the beginning of a dance. Dry lightning crackled madly through the sky and before anyone could blink, the scattered strands joined and ripped through the air in a torrent of light. A startling clap of thunder echoed and left a black scorch mark around a chard Rory.
The bouquet-pokémon struggled woozily to her feet but was crushed by the sparkling heliolisk who'd dash across the clearing in seconds. It hissed in triumph and bit her face, sucking energy through the use of Parabolic Charge.
Rory called to toxins surely in the small lizard's body but as the lethal doses burned the heliolisk chomped harder, draining more energy. It whipped its golden tail in pain and shredded her bouquets, exposing burrs that clung and sapped energy back to Rory, but it wasn't enough.
The mauling made it impossible to concentrate and she couldn't direct her Extrasensory. It wasn't until the lizard sprung off that she organized another Venoshock, but an alarming crepitation rushed through the air again and a second later a column of burning light arched down to her.
The Dragon Tamers whooped and hurrahed at the ashy pile left by Thunder. Maël caught his pokémon as it leapt into his arms and crammed motley berries into its greedy mouth. He frowned at the blood oozing from the many poisonous spurs sticking out of the lizard's soft scales.
Aurélie gave them a look of pity and cast out her ace. A togedemaru squeaked faintly and scurried around her feet, then fluffed his fur and bristled the spines on his back at a word from her. One Dragon Tamer groaned as he finally placed the mouse's typing, another shook his head in silent lament and the last facepalmed. The Battle Girl swept her long blue ponytail off her shoulder irritably, and scowled from the back of her conkeldurr.
Maël eyed the mouse and laughed incredulously, the happily wriggling lizard in his arms purred at the deep rumble. "Seriously?" he asked. The Fairy Tale Girl flashed her most innocent expression in response, betting the young heliolisk wasn't equipped to deal with steel-types yet. "Not worth it," Maël said to a chorus of groans and shouts.
"What?! We'll lose the bet!" someone called, miffed at Maël's unusual incompetence.
"How about this," Aurélie interrupted, holding up one finger, "last match, your best against mine. Winner decides the pokémon for the losing group."
Maël squinted as he considered. His friends argued around him, throwing out suggestions, threats and encouragement. Finally he nodded his head and recalled the heliolisk. The blonde girl did the same to the togedemaru and looked back at her friends, their smiles were genuine but brief, they'd forgotten how intense she was and half-regretted inviting her out. The Dragon Tamers shouted more suggestions.
"Switch for the kommo-o!"
"Use the dragalge!"
"Whatever you do don't use Spyk!"
Aurélie tossed a pokéball from hand to hand, wondering why the dragalge hadn't been an obvious substitute for her togedemaru. The dark brunet finally activated a pokéball, releasing a flood of light and a mighty thud shook the ground like a tremor.
The fanfare was accompanied by a bellow so deep and powerful it shook bones and bruised eardrums. Everyone reflectively threw their hands up to cover their ears, the Fairy Tale Girls shot each other surprised looks as their fairy pokémon braced to fight.
The Dragon Tamers couldn't help the grins stretching between their hands, and the charizard threw its head back to release a long stream of flame in greeting. Unfazed, Aurélie placed the pokéball back on her belt and chose another and with a practiced flick of her wrist, summoned her champion.
Everyone held their breaths as her pokémon materialized, a fluffy pink-furred pokémon hopped into sight, her long ears and saucer-sized blue eyes twitched as she faced the ancient king. To anyone else the sight would have been comical, but the Dragon Tamers knew better and quickly assessed their odds.
The wigglytuff inhaled deeply but choked on the blasted air the tyrantrum's next roar forced her way. She frowned and kept her perky ears folded back where they'd been flattened. The giant reptile charge her, each step reverberated through the ground and bounced her rubbery body. She used Teleport to wink away when the gargantuan jaws were mere feet away and belted out the beginnings of a song.
Spyk's rocky hide crunched as he turned toward the sound, spraying grit everywhere. He planted his massive clawed feet and unleashed an echoing roar to drown out Sing.
The wigglytuff was thrown back and bounced around as the rock-dragon charged once more. She inhaled lungful after lungful with each bounce to expand her squishy body. The balloon-pokémon let herself be influenced by her trainer's suggestion and let herself be reached, let the enormous, jagged jaws sink into her sublime fur with terrible force.
To her surprise, her repellent skin couldn't deflect such power and broke open around the sword-long fangs. The punctures allowed all the extra air to gust out, deflating her back to her original size.
Spyk tossed the floppy pokémon into the air and snapped her up, using Crunch to shred the soft bones, but found himself chewing on a satiny glob instead. He spit her out when a strange tingling zapped his tongue. He lowered his great head for a better look at the suddenly appealing fairy.
The wigglytuff stayed frozen in agony, everything throbbed and gushed. In this critical state her trained mind reverted to a primal state, counting on her Cute Charm ability to infatuate the despot-pokémon.
A tentative nudge to her mutilated side was the tell-tell sign that it had worked and she widened her eyes in a ruse. To her frantic impatience the giant dragonkin kneeled too slowly to press a ridged nostril into her ruined body softly, even as his trainer chanted commands.
She would have taken her time to aim but her wounds burned with pain and blood was spilling out uncontrolled. She shifted her head gingerly, close enough for their faces to touch and released a Dazzling Gleam straight into his eye.
With a shocked, throaty roar the tyrantrum threw his head up, the action helped him slide his legs forward to get on his feet. He uttered a deep trailing snarl that prickled skin and raised hair in alarm on all in the vicinity. The wigglytuff's own broken legs twitch instinctively. She didn't want to breathe, didn't think her lungs were still even in her body but moaned in her melodic voice and sang him back down to the ground and into a pleasant sleep.
The wigglytuff squeaked in distress and teleported to her trainer, Aurélie was already prepared with potion and puffin. One to heal her pokémon's wounds, the other to raise her spirits. The Dragon Tamers shouted at the top of their lungs in attempts to wake Spyk, they urged Maël to aim better as two chesto berries missed. The trainer's full lips thinned as he pressed them together in frustration.
Revived the fairy turned to face her giant opponent and glared in annoyance at the spectacle. She closed her eyes to better execute her next move and found Spyk's dreaming mind. With Dream Eater she ripped at his psyche causing intense mental pain, loud groans rumbled deeply from the sleeping reptile as he thrashed on the ground, sweeping mounds of dirt to the sides.
The wigglytuff gleefully hurried into another Dream Eater as the trainer softly tossed one berry after another. The Dragon Tamers groaned as Spyk's thunderous growling grew silent and immediately started shouting in protest.
"This guy couldn't hit a wall from inside!"
"Why would you use Spyk?"
"What did I say?! Don't. Use. Spyk...!"
Aurélie didn't giggle as a rule but couldn't help chortling to relieve the tension in her shoulders. She was pierced with several glares but it only made her laugh harder. "Why didn't...you play...the dragalge?" she managed to say between the musical laughter. The sour looks on the Dragon Tamers' faces and the charizard had her holding her sides as tears sprang to her eyes. The insulted look on the Battle Girl's face didn't help.
"Wouldn't you have just used the togedemaru?" Maël asked, chuckling despite himself.
"If I had you would have stood a chance through water-typing," she answered, charming him with her thrilled expression. His dark eyes held a bemused glint as he shrugged. "Or through steel moves with the kommo-o...so," she started, ignoring the chattering from everyone, "I'll be in touch when I get your fairy pokémon." He nodded absently and handed her his card, his coworkers embraced him but only to shove and punch him.
That night the Dragon Tamers sat around a campfire sharing a pot of stew.
It was typical of them to go into the wilderness to train, hangout and sleep under the stars, regardless if they worked the next day or not. They always chose resting sites near water for the comfort of their water types.
Tonight they were on the outskirt of farmland outside Camphrier Town, across the river from the berry fields, and they had a guest. A League Competitor and her pokémon relaxed amongst them.
Her milotic, elektross and dragonair stretched out alongside the tamers' gyarados, dragalge and both kingdra. Her serperior coiled near the Battle Girl's chesnaught and her steelix and arbok huddled next to a giant seviper.
An emboar and conkeldurr stood around conversing with a scrafty, garchomp and a goodra. Two sleek dragon types, a salazzle and hakamo wrestled further away from the trainers and even further afield a charizard, druddigon and turtonator ate freshly caught game.
In the night sky a noivern cartwheeled around a salamence, and two other dragonkin nestled in their trainer's laps, a heliolisk and an altaria. All together they had more firepower than an army, but the dragons and their tamers simply joked about their day and their embarrassing loss to the fairies.
"It's not on me," a Dragon Tamer boasted, "my salazzle cleaned house."
"Yeah, yeah...you got lucky. I had to fight the carbink, nothing could have withstood that thing."
"Guys have some empathy, no one had it rougher than Maël, he had to face a dirty little witch - and fairies too!"
That got laughs from all around. The sable trainer chuckled but honestly wasn't sure how he felt about the Fairy Tale Girl, and is why he'd guaranteed future encounters by losing the battle. He grimaced as the dare came to mind, what kind of fairy would she give them?
"What?" his girlfriend asked. The Battle Girl sat with both legs tucked underneath her, leaning against his shoulder so Watt, his heliolisk, could sit in his lap. He tilted his head to look at her perfect upturned face, but irrationally substituted the Fairy Tale Girl's golden features over her bright ones. Her pale eyes, blue hair and ruddy skin were suddenly jarring.
"Wondering what fairy I'll get stuck with."
"Pfft! I'm not training a fairy," someone said aggressively.
"I don't think she was serious," another Tamer commented.
"Something delicate probably, a spritzee or swirlix...a flabébé." A young man shuddered.
"What's that about?" the new girl asked. She got different explanations and five versions of the battles as each trainer described their matches, and because recounting battles was their second favorite pastime it lasted late into the night.
The morning din of pyroar thrummed across the rolling hills, through thickets, across farms and finally down a ravine to wake Maël Bragan.
The young man turned over in his sleep, off his electric sleeping roll and onto the damp edge of the Aquacorde River. He raised his head, still bewildered with dreams and felt drops slide down his neck from the wetness clinging to his stubble.
He wiped at the moisture with his hand but added more mud instead, giving up he shifted off stones and spied Ryll in the water through his disheveled reflection. The poison dragon floated peacefully in the deepest part of the river. Her blood-shot eyes remained closed through the lion's bis-in-die ritual thanks to the muting quality of her preferred medium. The other water loving pokémon maintained a wide berth around her stinging fins, even the gyarados slumbered upriver.
"Doesn't seem fair, does it, Watt?" he joked through a dry throat. The gleaming lizard peeled open one ultramarine eye at his name, uncurled to claim the rest of the heat mat and went limp. Maël laughed softly and tapped the water with his palm to wake Ryll - she didn't react well to being startled.
The dragalge's burning eyes snapped open to stare through the water. He took a deep breath and dunked his head in the river then slid the rest of the way in. "Cold!" The coldness took his breath away, at first it was unbearable, causing him to flail and spaz and pop his head out for more air but within a minute he was gliding through the water to his dragon.
She reached out on a long slender neck and nudged his shorts' pockets for treats with a narrow snout. He ducked under the long mane of lethal polyps on her head and caught her shiny black gaze. "Good morning, Beautiful One," he had to force the words into the water but he knew she could hear. Ryll blinked softy at the riot of bubbles his speech always made and drew closer, allowing him to pet her.
He carefully stroked the umber scales and spines of her eyes, cheeks and throat then lightly scratched down the long bone-plated scales of her neck. Her large fins undulated in the water and he carefully avoided the hidden nematocyst and sticky tentacles as he maneuvered onto her back. He sat on the flat ridge of her trunkring and tapped her mauve sides as a cue.
Maël rose to the surface to get some air on the dragalge and searched the bank for his girlfriend. He spied her long azure hair tangled around her pangoro's black and white fur, the daunting-pokémon was surprisingly motherly and protective of her trainer, even toward him.
Maël surveyed the other piles of sleeping forms and was amused none were being disturbed by the lion's roaring. Deciding he wouldn't be missed for a while, they took off down the river to retrieve the rest of his team and watched wild pokémon take their morning drinks at the water's edge. A roselia caught his eye and reminded him of Aurélie.